Sky Diving and Hydra Fighting
Chapter I
Skydiving and Hydra Fighting
“Blackout Actual to Command, charges are primed and ready to fire.” S109 Spartan Storm called over UNSC Comms, his speech unphased by the current firefight he was undergoing with Covenant forces. His accuracy never wavered as he pivoted from target to target while behind improvised cover, which happened to be the sliding door he blew off from the same hallway Covenant forces were coming from.
“10-4, Blackout Actual. Move out and secure the hanger for extraction. The rest of the assault force will regroup there.”
Storm proceeded with his new objective, holstering the AR he carried before kicking the door into a group of Elites. Storm then vacated as quickly as he infiltrated the Covenant Cruiser’s armory and into the hallways, running into a squad of Brutes at a crossroad in the hallways to the right of him. Hugging the wall, Storm grabbed and armed a flash bang from his armor and threw it into the squad, the speed at which the grenade flew causing one of the brutes to stammer and fall back, the grenade going off shortly after, blinding the rest of the brutes.
Storm then took out the squad with rapid succession, their bodies hitting the floor as fast as he could empty the clip. His mind returning to the task at hand, Storm began running down the corridors to the hanger bay.
All of a sudden, the lights in the corridor started to flash red as he was surrounded at another crossroad by several elites accompanied by two hunters. The ship creaked and shifted, the blast doors closing shut behind the adversaries in front of him.
“Sierra 107, I'm detecting that someone is ejecting this section of the Cruiser.” An AI from within his helmet alerted him.
“Better be sending me someplace where there’s tougher enemies, I could use a change of scenery right about now.” Storm replies, mag locking his AR to his back before pulling out the modified red energy sword he often carried. Getting into a fighting stance as he briefly beckons them, taunting for them to challenge him. A Zealot roared in anger before charging Storm, branding an orange energy sword, typical of the Zealots to carry. As the Zealot charged at him, he took attempted to swing at the Spartan, Storm ducked under it with swift movement before quickly rising up and deactivating his own energy sword, making sure to quickly grab the Zealot’s arm while making a swift move and slamming his left elbow into the Elite’s arm, causing the elite to roar in pain. Pivoting his feet, Storm slammed the Zealot over his shoulder and into the floor, reactivating his energy sword and impaling the Zealot with the sword.
“Blackout Actual, what's your ETA?” Command said through UNSC comms.
“Currently held up by Covenant forces, they've resorted to ejecting a section of their cruiser.” Storm reported, pulling his energy sword from the Zealot, before quickly grabbing a plasma grenade and arming it, once he’s done so he sticks it to the elites body and tosses it into the group of elites, causing the group to end up in disarray.
Storms shields began taking damage as the elites start to engage him. Feeling the bulkhead under his feet shake and vibrate, Storm spun around and made a dodging motion as a hunter slammed its shield down where he just was. Storm rolled to the side, getting back to his feet and launched into the hunter’s back with the help of his armor’s thrusters. Latching onto the hunter, the spartan tore off the armor plating protecting it’s back and began to repeatedly stab the worms that made up the body of the hunter.
The hunter thrashed about in pain and anguish, attempting to shake the Spartan off but it’s efforts were in vain as the spartan had too tight of a grip. Storm could only catch a glimpse of a group of elites moving towards him quickly. With fast thinking, Storm holstered his sword and grabbed one of his frag grenades before pulling the pin and slamming it into the hunter worms. Pulling himself away from the hunter, he aimed the hulking mass towards the incoming elites and kicked him towards them, before they could react the hunter exploded in a mass of orange goop. Although it didn't kill the elites it served as a distraction long enough for Storm to pull his MA-5 off his back, reload, and open fire.
The second hunter began to charge it’s weapon, Storm saw this dive rolled to the side right after the hunter fired, the mass of plasma missed its intended target and ended up hitting the elites instead. Coming out from behind cover, Storm aimed and fired upon the hunter, landing rounds into the mass of lekgolo worms. In anger, the hunter began to charge, roaring as loud as it could. The sudden click of no ammo from his MA-5 was enough to warn the spartan that he had to switch tactics. Grunting, Storm discarded the rifle and got into a fighting stance. Storm held his fists up and close, swiftly stepping to the right as the hunter swung its shield down, allowing Storm a chance to grab hold of it. Once with a tight grasp, Storm pivoted using the momentum of the Hunter and slammed it into the wall, landing on the floor in a stunned state. Quickly, Storm climbed atop the hunter and grasped the hunter’s antennae and tore off as many as he could before the hunter had a chance to react. The hunter roared, stood up and swiped his shield towards Storm.
“Blackout Actual, hold tight, pelican extract is en-route! ETA 5 mikes!”
“Ngh-! Copy!” Storm grunted, currently locked in stance as he blocks the hunter’s shield, his boots scraping against the metal flooring. Applying his suit’s thrusters, Storm pushed the shield away and started to pummel the hunter, slamming his fists as hard as possible into the lekgolo worms. He soon came to a stop as the hunter died before collapsing to the floor and becoming motionless.
“I'm detecting a slipspace rupture, the cruiser is going to jump!” The AI said with worry in his voice, “They aren’t going to get off that thing before it leaves this system.”
With little to no expression matching the AI, Storm sat down atop the dead hunter, happening to have killed every other lifeform in the ejected section of the Covenant Cruiser, and inspects his gear.
The AI was curious as to the spartan’s casual demeanor, finally materializing in front of Storm. “Sierra 107, you aren’t going to move towards the Landing Zone?”
“Nope.” Answered Storm, moving on to inspect his M6D Magnum before ejecting the magazine and pulling the slide back, looking into the chamber to make sure it’s clear before letting the slide slam forwards.
“Sierra 107, are you just going to wait and see where we end up?”
“Yup.” Storm then slides the mag back into the receiver and mag locks the weapon back to his thigh. “Let me know when we reach another planetary mass, alright Meritime?”
“Copy.” Maritime said, disappearing from visibility and leaving Storm to the view of a hallway littered with dead bodies.
A few hours later...
"We have exited slipspace, no reading of the cruiser but there is a planet in the sector." Meritime reported, watching as Storm stood up and stretched.
"Time to pay a visit then."
On the planet surface...
A Hydra rampaged about in a local town, roaring loudly as its head spewed fire upon the buildings causing the residents to run from their homes that were caught in the inferno. It would’ve continued, but its attention was grabbed by a group of colorful ponies of different colors. White, pink, yellow, cyan, orange, and the last of the group being purple. They all stood in a formation, the yellow pony standing forth and staring directly into the Hydra's eyes, causing it to freeze as it felt itself being scolded for something it did.
At that exact same moment elsewhere...
“Are you sure jumping into the planet was a good idea?” Meritime asked, watching as the Spartan dove from the part of the ship he was on into the atmosphere of the planet.
“Yup.”
“We have no landing strategy.”
“Yup.”
“You give no shits about this do you?”
“Bingo.”
Meritime let out an audible sigh, but quickly jolted after picking up weird readings from the planet below. “Life forms detected below, weapons ready when landing.” The AI directed as Storm then went weapons ready, holding his MA-5 close as he fell to the planet.
As the ground got closer, they could both see a large creature surrounded by fire, appearing to be frozen in time.
“Well that’s delightful, a landing pad has been set out for me, I’ll have to thank someone for this.” Storm said as he activated his suit's thrusters again, maneuvering to land on the beast.
“W-what? That’s a Hydra!” Meritime exclaimed as they got closer, shocked that something mythological even existed on this planet.
“Time to break my new toy.” He said as he then applied full thrust, barreling down and into the middle head of the hydra, slamming into it with such force that Storm could feel the skull crack underneath him as the head fell to the ground.
Quickly, Storm jumped off and into the ground, gaining distance from the hydra, still facing it with his MA-5 drawn, sights positioned on it. The hydra stood back up, the middle head of the three laid limp on the ground, its two heads roaring in anger at the spartan. Suddenly the hydra charged at Storm, its two heads shooting down upon him to tear the spartan apart. However they were met with an armor locked spartan, slamming into Storm and shattering their teeth upon impact, the energy around the spartan causing them to be electrocuted in the process. The hydra reared back in pain, spinning around to tail swipe their assaulter.
Getting out of armor lock, Storm quickly jumped away from the tail flying at his left, grabbing a hold of it as it swung past. Using his suit's thrusters again, Storm quickly launched up the hydra’s back as he unloaded a full magazine into the mythological beast.
“It’s hide is too dense to get much results, recommend you use the energy sword.” Meritime suggested, evaluating the hydra both in real form and from mythology. “I have an idea, but it’s sketchy.”
Storm only grunted as he switched to his energy sword, slicing into the hydra as it screeched in pain.
“We can’t cut off its head or a new one will grow back in its place, it's possible to strike at the heart, but calculations don’t give a clear result.”
“Copy.” Storm said rolling off the hydra and back onto the ground, getting back in front of it.
The hydra roared once more, its head shooting down again and actually getting the result it wanted. But it soon found out the spartan had other plans as Storm began to crawl down the throat of the hydra, finding his way to the heart of the creature as Storm had cut his way through with the red energy sword. With a ground shaking thud, the hydra fell as Storm impaled the hydras heart, causing the beast to die almost instantly.
Just outside, the group of ponies watched in horror as the metal being attacked the hydra, frozen still as they saw the hydra go limp on the ground and die. To further extend their horror, they saw the metal being then slice its way out of the fallen hydra, covered in blood.
Storm watched as the purple pony then flared its wings, putting up a shield of some sorts, hearing the neighing as it seemed to call out to something and with a bright flash, the group of ponies were gone.
“No welcoming party or a thank you? How rude.” Storm said calmly, soon pulling out his MA-5 and aiming it as a squad of ponies wearing golden armor aimed spears at him.
“Looks like you spooked them.” Maritime said, “I suggest making a peaceful approach, this planet obviously isn’t Covenant allied. Maybe they can help us return to our forces.”
Suddenly a spear was chucked at Storm, signifying that no possibilities of a peaceful meetings could be attempted.
“Attacking me after I helped them? Peaceful approach my ass.” Storm said.
“W-what?!”
At the Canterlot Castle...
A bright flashed masked the throne room, causing Princess Celestia to jump. As the light died down, she scanned the room to see that the elements had arrived, seeming to be trembling in fear.
“Princess Celestia!” The girls exclaimed in unison.
“Princess! We- we need to pre-“ Twilight started, not finding the words to express what just had occurred. “A metal... thing just fell from the sky and-and Fluttershy was...”
“Breathe, Twilight. Start from the beginning.” Celestia said, her voice calming and motherly.
And so Twilight explained everything that had happened, the rest of the elements nodding in confirmation to console Celestia’s suspicions.
“And so when it killed the hydra, I called the stationed guards to suppress the metal being, and I teleported us here.” Twilight finished, sitting down with her head hung low.
“If this is true, then we need to prepare everypony to stand fast to evacuate their homes incase the creature attacks. Twilight I’m putting you in charge of evacuating Ponyville. Luna and I will take charge of the royal Guard and hold off this creature if it does attack.” Celestia commanded, watching Twilight bow as she accepted her position.
“I will do my best, Princess Celestia.” Twilight said loyally.
“I’m sure you will, but I’m not sure if our best will be enough.”
To be continued. .
Author's Note
Hope you enjoy this little piece of inspired work.
Chapter 2
Where's My “Thank You?!”
Storm looked upon the burning village, a dead hydra behind him and shot up corpses of the pony guards suited in golden armor before him. Reloading, Storm began to move forward and out of the town, establishing a new objective.
“Sierra 107, what are you doing?” Meritime asked, already knowing the answer but didn’t want to accept it just yet.
“I’m going to get my “Thank You.” Storm replied, not exactly happy about wasting his time killing a hydra, but he couldn’t care less either way. “Besides, they attacked UNSC forces first.”
“They were most likely scared! Surely you can’t blame these natives for wanting to defend themselves from what’s unknown to them?” Meritime argued, obviously not happy with the way the Spartan was dealing with the situation. “You’re not going to kill them all are you?”
Storm paused mid-step, just exiting the village to the rest of country he landed in. There was a silence between them as the flames crackled in the wind, until Storm spoke up suddenly. “You knew what you were getting into when entering my head after I warned you. You said, ‘If I went through the same things you did, I’d turn out the same.” Storm retorted strongly, already getting tired of the conversation topic.
“I understand, Sierra 107.” Meritime finished, dropping the subject and went silent.
The two resumed forwards, leaving the village and traveled the path ahead with no clue to where it led. The path soon came to an open field, trees becoming less common as they went on. In the distance mountains rose from the horizon as clouds littered the darkening sky.
“I’m detecting an anomaly…” Meritime spoke, something bothering him.
“Explain.”
“I saw it earlier, but I didn’t register it… This planet doesn’t have a orbit around a sun, neither a rotation along its axis.” The AI pointed out, “Look, the sun is setting in the east.”
Storm turned around, seeing the setting sun indeed lower in the east.
“And the moon, it rises from the west… In reality this planet shouldn’t survive. The sun is equal in size and distance from the planet as the moon! How is the moon even projecting light? The size of this planet would surely block the rays of the sun-“ Meritime rambled on, the Spartan soon tuning the AI out as he continued his rant.
Storm began to think about how he would deal with those multi colored ponies, especially what he would do to get his “thank you” he rightfully earned but never received. The thought of it made his stomach rumble in hunger.
“Damn… I wish I had a burger…” Storm said to himself. Now thinking about it, that hydra would’ve made a fine meal if he knew he was going to be hungry.
“Contacts up ahead, Sierra 109.” Meritime said, bringing Storm out of his thought of hunger.
Storm looked and saw what appeared to be a crossing checkpoint lit with torches during the night. As he got closer he could hear someone call, seeing that it was a pony wearing golden armor like the others he had just fought a couple hours before.
“Halt in the name of the Princesses!” The Guard pony said, aiming a spear at the spartan. “You are past curfew established by her highness! State your business or you will be taken into custody!”
More ponies then came out of a building next to the checkpoint to see the commotion, some with spears in their hooves. A minute nearly passed as the guards kept a close eye on the figure that was dimly lit in the dark. They were getting antsy as time kept ticking with no confirmation from the Spartan.
“I repeat! State your business-” The Guard suddenly stopped as a small transparent biped figure appeared before him, jumping back a bit.
“I am AI Meritime, smart AI of the UNSC, or United Nations Space Command. I bring you no harm, but to whom you were calling to will. I suggest you stand down and walk back inside that building,” Meritime said, waving a hand to the building next to them and continued. “Or else you will most likely die.”
“And what position are you in to give us orders?” The Guard pony said, keeping distance from the ghostly figure before him.
“I’m not in any position. But if you listen to me-” A gunshot suddenly went off, a single bullet whizzing past the AI and slamming through the guard pony’s head, putting Meritime in distraught as the body dropped to the dirt road.
The guards suddenly turned to the source of the loud bang to be met with a creature holding up something at them. Suddenly, members of their ranks dropped within seconds of each other as the Spartan fired it’s Magnum, killing all manning the checkpoint.
“I said don’t shoot, god damn it!” Meritime yelled in anger, appearing in front of Storm.
“They weren’t leaving their posts like you said.” The Spartan rebutted.
“I WAS GETTING TO IT!” Meritime’s projection flickered, turning red.
The Spartan just shrugged as he holstered his Magnum and continued walking, going past the dead bodies at the checkpoint. “Took too long.”
Meritime just let out a sigh, having nothing meaningful to combat with against Storm’s decisions. The AI’s projection flickered into nothing as Storm got further away, staying silent as they continued along the dirt road.
The Next Day
Celestia’s face was stoic. The sight before her disturbing but she wouldn’t give in for morale for her ponies also witnessing the scene before her as well. “What ever creature did this… They will be brought to justice for this…” Celestia said to herself, wanting to get away from the scene.
“Your Highness, we’re ready to move the bodies.” A orange pegasi Guard pony said, taking a second glance over the area, a look of worry on his face.
“Thank you, Captain Sentry.” Celestia commended. “Is the chariot ready for the return to Canterlot?”
“Yes, your Highness.”
“Report once their bodies have returned to Canterlot. Make sure their families are notified of their passing. We can’t have ponies know of this monster, so come up with a reason why they had died.” Celestia ordered, walking to her chariot and finding her seat. “To Canterlot.”
The chariot lurched forward, the pegasi transport going into the air shortly after as they then turned towards Canterlot. But little did they know there was another set of eyes watching them.
In a Nearby set of Trees
“You catch any of that?” Storm asked, watching the chariot fly off towards a city on the mountains.
“Yes, the one who took off in that chariot is named Princess Celestia, presumably an important figure of this planet… I assume you can get what you want from her.” Meritime said, slowly regretting what was to possibly come.
“So follow the chariot? Easy enough.” Storm said, hopping down from the tree and headed off towards the city in the mountains.
Today was going to be an interesting day.
